A heart-wrenching story of how loyalty, friendship, and love carry a town through its darkest days.

After everything that the citizens of Beartown have gone through, they are struck yet another blow when they hear that their beloved local hockey team will soon be disbanded. What makes it worse is the obvious satisfaction that all the former Beartown players, who now play for a rival team in Hed, take in that fact. Amidst the mounting tension between the two rivals, a surprising newcomer is handpicked to be Beartown’s new hockey coach.

“Backman’s ability to tell stories in pictures is one of his strongest merits, not least how he describes relationships. It’s rare that one cares about so many characters in a book, and seldom that one comes so close to a whole community. But the leading role in Backman’s novels about Beartown is, after all, played by the sports community. It’s a love declaration of the highest order.”

—Göteborgs-Posten (Sweden)

“Fredrik Backman writes wonderfully about men, with a love and understanding for the ones who would rather solve conflicts with their fists. It’s hard not to love it.”

—Dagens Nyheter (Sweden)

“A brilliant sequel…Backman writes about loyalty and love, but also captures the feelings of athletes in a vibrant way.”

—Skaraborgs Allehanda (Sweden)

“Backman knows how to construct a thrilling plot, and what he writes engages. And when he hits his stride among the emotions, the sentimental turns into an asset – like a hockey puck straight to the heart.”

—Landskrona Posten (Sweden)

“It’s obvious that Fredrik Backman loves sports and no one is as good at evoking feelings as he is. You are thrown between laughter and tears in the space of one sentence to the next. At the same time, this might be his most earnest and serious novel to date. It takes an even bigger grip on the world than the previous novel in the series did. Now we can only wait for the next chapter..”

—Värmlands Folkblad (Sweden)

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